List of aircraft carrier classes of the United States Navy

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This is a list of all the aircraft carrier, light carrier and escort carrier classes that have served in the United States Navy.

Before 1975, there was a number of aircraft carrier designations:

CV (Fleet aircraft carrier)
CVL (light carrier)
CVS (Anti-submarine aircraft carrier)
CVB (Large carrier)
CVA (Atomic (CVA-58 only) or Attack aircraft carrier)
CVAN (Nuclear powered attack aircraft carrier).

After 1975, all remaining aircraft carriers were designated as either:

CV (Multi-mission aircraft carriers)
CVN (Multi-mission, nuclear powered aircraft carriers)

Designation	Class	Ships	Active	Description
CV-1	Langley	1	1922 - 1936	Converted from USS Jupiter (AC-3). Experimental ship, served 1925-36 as an aircraft carrier before being converted to a seaplane tender and given the new hull symbol AV-3.
CV-2	Lexington	2	1928 - 1946	The Lexington class aircraft carriers were the first operational aircraft carriers in the United States Navy (USS Langley was a strictly developmental ship which only served for a short time as an active fleet unit before being converted to a seaplane tender AV-3). The ships were laid down and partly built as battlecruisers before being converted to carriers while under construction.
CV-4	Ranger	1	1934 - 1946	First purpose-built US Navy aircraft carrier. Operations with Ranger vs. Lexington and Saratoga quickly confirmed that larger carriers were inherently more useful than smaller ones.
CV-5	Yorktown	3	1937 - 1945	Highly advanced (for their time) ships. Hornet was built after Wasp to expedite carrier production while the Essex class plans were being finalized. By the end of September 1942, both Yorktown and Hornet were on the bottom of the Pacific; Enterprise (CV-6), the orphaned sister of the class, became one of the most famous ships of World War II.
CV-7	Wasp	1	1940 - 1942	Modified Yorktown class, built on 3,000 less tons to use up allotted tonnage under the Washington Naval Treaty. Less than satisfactory, but she gave good service until her sinking in late 1942.
CV-9	Essex	25	1943 - 1976	This class constituted the Twentieth Century's largest class of heavy warships, with 25 ships built. Although thirty-two were originally ordered, six were cancelled before construction, and two were cancelled after construction had begun. (16 ships of the CV-14 Ticonderoga class are considered either a separate class or a "Long hull" group of the Essex class, depending on source). A number of these ships soldiered on into the mid-1970s as light attack and antisubmarine carriers, and some as Boxer-class amphibious assault ships
CVL-22	Independence	9	1943 - 1970	First of two classes of light fleet carrier, though Ranger and Wasp could previously have been considered "light carriers". This class were a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's interest in Navy shipbuilding plans. In August 1941, with war looming, he noted that no new fleet aircraft carrier were expected before 1944 and proposed to quickly convert some of the many cruisers then building.
CV-41	Midway	3	1945 - 1992	This class was one of the longest lived carrier designs in history. First commissioned in late 1945, the lead ship of the class, USS Midway was not decommissioned until 1992, shortly after seeing service in the Gulf War. Six were planed; 3 were built.
CVL-48	Saipan	2	1946 - 1970	Built on modified Baltimore class cruiser hulls. These ships were completed too late to be particularly useful as aircraft carriers, as rapidly advancing aircraft technology quickly overtook their cramped flight decks. Both were converted to command-and-control ships in the mid-1950s, Saipan to USS Arlington (AGMR-2) and Wright to CC-2.
CVA-58	United States	1		This class was never commissioned (3 more were planned). See Revolt of the Admirals for details.
CV-59	Forrestal	4	1955 - 1998	The Forrestal class was the first class of "supercarriers" of the Navy, so called because of their then-extraordinarily high tonnage (75,000 tons, 25% larger than the WW2-era Midway class), full integration of the angled deck (Forrestal and Saratoga were laid down as axial deck carriers and converted to angled deck ships while under construction;
CV-63	Kitty Hawk	3	1961 - Present	Sometimes called "Improved Forrestal class." Sometimes listed as a four-ship class, with USS John F. Kennedy (see below) as a member. The biggest differences from the Forrestals are greater length, and a different placement of elevators; two are forward of the island, with a third at the portside stern. The movement of the #4 elevator from the forward to the after end of the angle made it useful for aircraft movement, since the forward-end elevator was useless as it was in both the landing path and in the launch path of the #3 and #4 catapults.
CVN-65	Enterprise	1	1965 - Present	First nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, using eight A2W reactors. Enlarged, nuclear-powered Kitty Hawk class, delivered without armament as a cost-saving measure. A second ship was cancelled for lack of funds and reordered as the conventionally-powered Kitty Hawk class USS America (CV-66)
CV-67	John F. Kennedy	1	1968 - 2007	Last oil-fired aircraft carrier. Sometimes grouped as a Kitty Hawk class ship. Laid down as a nuclear ship to use four A3W reactors, converted to conventional propulsion early in construction.
CVN-68	Nimitz	10	1975 - Present	The Nimitz class supercarriers are a line of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service with the US Navy using two A4W reactors, and are the largest capital ships in the world. These ships are numbered with consecutive hull numbers starting with CVN 68. Ten ships will be in the class by 2008.
CVN-78	Gerald R. Ford	N/A	(2015)	The United States Navy CVN-21 program ("21st Century Aircraft Carrier") is the next generation supercarrier for the United States Navy. Before its redesignation as the CVN-21 carrier program this project was known by the initials CVNX carrier program. It should not be confused with CV 21, the hull designation for the post-World War II carrier USS Boxer, which was in service from 1945-1969. 3 ships are planned, CVN-78, -79 and -80.

Many escort carriers were Lend-Leased to the United Kingdom, so this list specifies how many of each type saw service in the US Navy.

Designation	Class	Ships	Description
CVE-1	Long Island	2	1 in USN service (USS Long Island), and HMS Archer.
CVE-9	Bogue	45	11 in USN service. British service as HMS Attacker class (first batch) and HMS Ameer class (second batch).
CVE-26	Sangamon	4	All in USN service.
CVE-30	Charger	4	1 (USS Charger) mainly in USN service, 3 in British service as Avenger class.
CVE-55	Casablanca	50	All in USN service. It was originally planned to send half of these ships to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease; the second run of Bogues was sent instead.
CVE-105	Commencement Bay	19	All in USN service. Includes two units which were accepted but not commissioned and laid up for many years after the war. 4 more units were canceled and scrapped on the building slips at the end of World War II.